The man charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump on his West Palm Beach golf course in September tried to purchase a rocket-propelled grenade to blow up Mr. Trump’s plane, prosecutors allege in new court documents.
Prosecutors plan to submit Ryan Wesley Routh’s “attempt to acquire anti-aircraft weapons” as evidence he attempted to assassinate Mr. Trump.
Routh was indicted for attempting to assassinate a major political candidate and other charges. He was arrested on Sept. 15 after a Secret Service agent spotted him aiming a rifle through the bushes surrounding Mr. Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course, where Mr. Trump was playing that afternoon.
Court documents show Routh was also making alternative plans to take down Mr. Trump, who was then the Republican nominee for president and flying around the country to hold campaign rallies.
In documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, prosecutors say Routh told an associate, “Send me an rpg [rocket-propelled grenade] or stinger and I will see what we can do. … [Trump] is not good for Ukraine.”
Routh asked the associate, not identified by prosecutors, whether he could “ship it” to him and said he needed the rocket “so that Trump cannot get elected.”
Prosecutors say Routh sent the associate an image of President Trump’s plane, writing, “Trump’s plane, he gets on
and off daily.”
Before the alleged assassination attempt, Routh left a trail of social media posts expressing a strong dislike of Mr. Trump, support for the Harris-Walz presidential ticket and an obsession with supporting the Ukrainian war against Russia.
Prosecutors did not identify the associate but said the two exchanged messages about prices and logistics that suggest the person was on the ground fighting in Ukraine and could obtain a missile.
In one message exchange, Routh wrote, “You are at war so those items lost and destroyed daily — one missing would not be noticed. Do you think Trump will be good for Ukraine????”
Prosecutors say the attempt to purchase a missile to blow up Mr. Trump’s plane “is a substantial step taken in furtherance of his plot” to assassinate him.
Routh’s public defenders in September entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Routh, a convicted felon, was denied bail and remains in custody. His trial is scheduled for September.
Routh’s legal team Monday asked the judge to exclude an eyewitness statement from an unidentified person who spotted Routh entering his vehicle after fleeing the golf course.
“The identification procedures used to implicate Ryan Routh in this case were impermissibly suggestive and violated his constitutional right to due process,” Routh’s defense team argued in new court documents.
Routh’s alleged assassination attempt came two months after Mr. Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a bullet fired by a 20-year-old man hit his ear.
The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore and injured two others before he was shot dead by a Secret Service agent.
